8 cute as hell ways to decorate your home for Halloween

Halloween and Halloween party decorations typically fall into two categories: the kind of stuff you’d find at a children’s Halloween party (like orange paper streamers and amateur Jack O’Lanterns) or full-on haunted house gory with fake blood and cobwebs hanging from the ceiling. However, if your home décor style is normally more Martha Stewart than Stephen King, why should you have to be someone you’re not when decorating your home for a Halloween party (or just the general, glorious month of October)? Whether your celebration is a sit-down dinner or a casual cocktail party, here are some Halloween home decor ideas to make your Halloween party decorations chic as hell (bwahaha).

1Halloween trees

Why should Christmas be the only holiday that deserves a fancy, decorated tree? Take an old artificial tree and spray paint it orange (or, even, a trendy yellow/orange/white ombre, like in this photo.) Decorate with twinkly lights, black ornaments, and a bat-themed tree topper, and you have an elegant yet spooky centerpiece for your living room.

2Edgy pumpkins

Leave the carving to the kids, while you spray paint your pumpkins this Halloween. Then, stencil graphic designs on them or glue on metal adornments to them to make your pumpkins look like they fell off a New York Fashion Week runway.

3Punny pumpkins

If edgy is not your thing, go the opposite direction with these pastel-colored pumpkins with funny puns painted onto them with stencils. Your younger party guests will nod in appreciation of the pop culture references, and your older guests will be all, “which witch has candy?”

4Orange and black florals

Halloween may seem like an odd occasion to decorate with flowers, but an orange or black bouquet with carnations and roses can strike the right balance between elegant and eerie. For extra scary points, arrange them in a skull vase and decorate the tops with plastic spiders and a loose fake eyeball or two.

5Pumpkin and succulent centerpieces

Pumpkins are not just vessels for holding candy and candles; they also make wonderful DIY planters for your dining room and entryway table. You could arrange flowers inside them, but if you want create a more modern fall look, insert moss and succulents into tiny pumpkins instead for an arrangement that will last through November.

6Halloween garland

From dressing up a boring wall to framing a doorway, garlands can add pizzazz to any room. Halloween garlands are extra fun with their fall colors and can take the shape of everything from a simple tassel, like the ones above, to pumpkins and ghosts.

7Halloween-themed wall decals

https://www.instagram.com/p/BXnjRDUnpc3

Peel-and-stick wall decals are a glam way to change up your walls and windows for Halloween. From small and subtle bats on an accent wall to a life-size skeleton greeting your guests from a front window, decals are a fun and inexpensive way to add ghouls and goblins to your home without having to break out the paint or spend hours on a DIY project.

8Black candles

Halloween entertaining is all about setting the right mood, and there is something about drippy, black taper candles in a dimly lit room that gives us the chills. Pair them with vintage candle holders and gold place settings for a Morticia Addams-style dinner, or arrange them around your home in low-traffic areas to serve as the main source of lighting and help create a spooky ambiance.